


To Tame a Dragon

by ShatteredSwallowtail



Series: Taming Dragons [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Aymeric doesn't care, Estinian is cranky, Ishgardian Husbands, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:53:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23778715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShatteredSwallowtail/pseuds/ShatteredSwallowtail
Summary: Set post HW, spoilers up to the end of the Dragonsong War, but really only regarding Estinian.He hadn't planned to go back, not with Nidhogg's taint still with him. But he had to say goodbye.
Relationships: Aymeric de Borel/Estinien Wyrmblood
Series: Taming Dragons [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1733218
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	To Tame a Dragon

Placing another sheet of paper atop the immaculate stack on his desk, pale blue eyes flickered over to the guttering candle that took up its usual place on the far corner. It was late, well past the hour that most denizens of Ishgard had found their way to their beds and well beyond the point that he had assured Lucia that he would stop and seek rest himself. Aymeric dipped his quill into the inkwell to sign his name to yet another form as he bit back a yawn and did his best to scrub the exhaustion away with his other hand. Lucia would be angry that he had ignored his own health; the blonde wouldn’t scold him. Not outright, she would have considered doing so to be a breach of protocol regardless of the camaraderie the two shared. Despite the deep friendship and loyalty, Aymeric’s gentle reassurances that she could address him in a more friendly and less proper way...he knew that his most loyal would never cross that line. And in a way, that knowledge was a comfort. It was normalcy, a constant in a world that had changed so much in so rapid of a span of time.His own life had been upended in violence and bloodshed and despite all of that… all that they had all been through...they had peace. A tenuous peace, but peace nonetheless.

And that did nothing to ease the burden from Aymeric’s weary shoulders. Ah, he mused...he could bear that burden far better if some balm could be found for the burden that weighed most heavily on his heart. The emptiness that he felt, the conspicuous lack of his ever present shadow. Rolling his shoulders, Aymeric bit back a hiss of discomfort as stiff muscles caught and pulled and he did his best to shift just enough to relieve some of the tension in them. Already so late into the night and so much left to do. To rebuild Ishgard, but more than that… to make it better than before. To finally realize so many dreams that he had been forced to set aside and exercise patience with. They had gained so much, but so much had also been lost. And it was some of those losses that he still struggled to move past.

“Your security is still lacking.”

The soft voice caught him so off guard that he nearly grabbed for Neigling before recognition had him freezing in place. Had he truly been so caught up in his own thoughts that he had missed the soft click of the window latch? Or the light footsteps that he could recognize in a heartbeat from so many similar nights? Where his dearest friend would slip silently into this office and just… be. They would share tea and simply enjoy each other’s company. Aymeric keeping conversation while Estinian offered a nod or a grunt here and there. While some might have asked why the silver-tongued Elezen seemed to bother - the dragoon appeared to neither want nor particularly enjoy the conversation - Aymeric knew better. Knew that the silver-haired one considered him a dear - and perhaps his only - friend, and that while Estinian may not have contributed much in words to the exchanges...he enjoyed them just as much. On some nights, when Aymeric allowed himself a break from the seemingly constant work, they both even managed to relax. To discard armour and set their burdens aside to share companionship by the warm fire with tumblers of amber whiskey. Those nights reminded him the most of the past. Of the times when they had been younger and less burdened by their respective paths and destinies. When Estinian had been freer with his smiles and there had been less bitterness in his laughter and harshness in his features. But as much as Aymeric mourned the harshness that had grown in his dearest friend...he nonetheless respected it, and admired the man that Estinian had become.

There were other feelings there, beyond admiration and the warm affection of friendship...but it did little to dwell on those private thoughts. Memories of times he had stolen glances when the other wasn’t looking, nights spent with his own fantasies where he had muffled his hand against whimpers of the dragoon’s name…. Shaking his head internally, Aymeric allowed those thoughts back into the box within his psyche where he kept them carefully stored. Where they could do no harm to the friendship he treasured and was unwilling to jeopardize. He turned his head just slightly to catch sight of that familiar slender figure in armour and frowned when his gaze found...nothing. No dragoon leaning against the window and glaring at him for the aforementioned lack of security. Had his ears been playing tricks on him, then? Had he truly been pining for Estinian’s company to such a degree that he was now losing his faculties and hearing things? Aymeric pushed his chair back from the desk slightly to get a better glance at his office, pale blue eyes narrowing in confusion as he scanned the room before a chuckle by his ear had him spinning around.

Or rather….he would have spun around had his arm not been suddenly twisted in an iron grip that held him perfectly still. As he tensed to fight off his would be assailant, that familiar voice whispered into his ear again.

“Peace, my lord…”

So Estinian...as he had suspected - and hoped, if being honest with himself - and Aymeric relaxed slightly as the grip on his arm loosened. “Really, Estinian… you have already declared my security to be insufficient.. Needs you demonstrate that in such a manner?” His second attempt to turn around was met with another tightening of the armoured grip on his shoulder and he bit back a growl of frustration. Opening his mouth to protest before he was cut off by the dragoon’s words.

“I would not have you look upon me, my lord. I am...not as I was.”

“Then put your blasted helm on.” He wanted to say, though knowing Estinian….that was already the case. Instead, the raven-haired man nodded with a soft sigh. “If that is your wish, you needst only have spoken it. Though I wonder, my friend… do you truly believe that I would think less of you?” That thought...pained him. To consider that Estinian believed his regard to be such a weak thing as that. “Peace, Estinian… we are neither of us the men that we were ere this journey began. Think you truly that I would turn away my dearest friend for something so trifling?”

The response he received was a bark of laughter more bitter than the blackest of coffee that Estinian preferred on those mornings after a difficult battle - and the drinks that came after - as the dragoon finally released him and seemed to melt back into the shadows. At least this time Aymeric could see him. Or… could see his dark outline where he leaned against the wall. Helm on, as Aymeric had somehow known it would be. A testament that whatever changes Estinian referred to bothered him enough to retain some measure of distance between them. With that hand removed from his arm, he took a moment to rotate the appendage and work the stiffness out of it before flashing a faint smile at the shadowed dragoon. “I will be honest… I feared you had quit Ishgard for good ere you snuck away in such a manner. I am gladdened to see you, my friend.” Oh, it wasn’t fair how much it ached right now. How much he wanted to rip open that carefully guarded box within his mind and give voice to all of the things welling up within him. All of the things that he had cursed himself over keeping hidden when he had gone to Estinian’s sickbed…. To find the dragoon vanished. Melted away into the world as a snowflake under dragonfire. Perhaps it had been better, yet another reminder as to the reasons he had always refrained from voicing those thoughts..those emotions. Yet bitterness had filled him when that choice had been made for him instead. And now, having Estinian standing there, so close….and yet somehow so much farther away. It was almost unbearable and Aymeric swallowed hard before he opened his mouth to speak. Only to be cut off again.

“Aye, that is my intent.”

His own words died on his tongue before he could speak them and his eyes widened as that simple statement cut into him as keenly as the dagger that had nearly been the death of him both so recently and somehow so long ago. “You… you cannot mean that, Estinian. There must be….. Why?” Silver tongue failed him as the most he was able to manage was the one word, inwardly cursing the desperate tone that twined with it as he pushed himself up from his desk. “Surely there must be some reason other than mere fancy that would drive you to do such a thing. Ishgard is… it is your home, Estinian.”

Another bitter chuckle as the shadow-shrouded dragoon shook his head. “Your protests do not surprise me, my lord… yet I fear you are yet forgetting what I have already said. I am not as I was.” His voice dropped, more bitterness edging it as he curled a fist in front of him. “Nidhogg’s...taint…. Still resides within me, and likely always will. I do not entertain fancies that Ishgard would welcome the creature I have become. I am not a fool, my lord, so do not suggest that I am. I came merely… to say goodbye.”

“You are a fool if you think me like to stand idly by in the face of such idiocy.” He snapped back, rapidly closing the distance between himself and the dragoon. Who stiffened and grabbed for his lance almost as though he considered using it as a barrier. A barrier that Aymeric knew was more symbolic than material as he simply shoved it aside to take another step closer. “You cannot simply depart thusly, Estinian… Not without…. Not until I….” Composure warred with emotion as he swallowed and tried to collect his thoughts before speaking again. “There are many things I would…. That I have kept…”

His broken attempts at an explanation were met with a blur of dark motion as Aymeric found their positions suddenly reversed, his back hitting cold stone as Estinian’s gauntlett fingers dug into his upper arms and the dragoon pinned him in place. The silver-haired man’s long body held him immobile with one knee between his own as Estinian leaned in to whisper with an edge to his voice. “Think you that I am blind or a fool, my lord? That I cannot see that which you so poorly attempt to hide?” As if to punctuate exactly what he was speaking of, he pressed his knee harder against his pinned prey, a faint smirk gracing his lips as the slightly shorter man’s breath caught in the barest of moans. “Indeed, I had begun to assume that you were somehow ignorant of it yourself.” The smirk faded as he dropped his helmeted head to Aymeric’s shoulder with a whisper and another grind of his knee against the other man. “Do not ask for that which I cannot give, my lord. Whatever desires I possess… I will not see Nidhogg’s taint brought back into your life. But I can give you this…”

With another grind of hips, he fastened lips to the side of Aymeric’s neck with a growling moan as the other man whimpered beneath him. He had meant it; he would not allow this taint to somehow infect the one thing in this world that he truly cherished… the one he would protect from everything, including himself. But while Aymeric was selfless and giving of himself to the detriment of his own self… he himself was not, and Estinian was not above greedily taking the opportunity to touch what he had never considered himself worthy of. Just this once… and then he would be gone. No longer having to pretend ignorance of the longing in those blue eyes when his lord believed him otherwise occupied. Not realizing that his attention was always on Aymeric. Always on that man who was the light to his shadow, and the reason he had fought so hard to be free of Nidhogg’s taint even just for one last glimpse of that smile. And so he allowed himself to touch, to sweep gauntleted hand across toned stomach and up to unfasten those heavy pauldrons and let them fall to the ground so he could trace toned muscles through fabric.

“I fain you would sleep in this armour were it not inconvenient.” He remarked dryly as he resumed his current exploration of a sensitive spot right beneath Aymeric’s left ear in time with the grinding of his knee.

“So sayeth…. The one….still wearing a helm…” Aymeric managed to gasp out as he groped for the fasteners only to have his hands gripped hard and pinned over his head as Estinian pulled back with an angry hiss. “By the Fury, have your ears ceased to function? Is it not enough for me to give you this, my lord, and allow you to think me the same as I once was ere you wanted me? Very well then.” With a growl, his other hand wrenched the helm off to reveal his face. Silvery hair grown longer than before, falling around the same hard angled face set in a scowl. Only the dark blue eyes that Aymeric remembered had taken on the appearance of burning embers as they bored into his own. Dragon’s eyes, pupils slitted and narrowed at him. But they were not the only difference. Small black horns, curving from his temples, settled amongst small black scales that trailed across his temples and down the sides of his neck. Sharper points to his long ears…. And something indefinable. A predatory air that likely should have been off-putting...but instead sent a thrilling shiver down Aymeric’s spine as he took in the changes to his dearest friend. Watching Estinian, gauging the tension on his frame that seemed as a coiled spring ready to snap, he shook his head with a soft smile.

“I see nothing to take away from my wanting you. That which you deem a taint...perhaps it is so, but I see only the one I would most wish to keep at my side…. The one I have admired for so long….” He swallowed again, his nerve almost failing him. “The one….. I would have as my own, were he so inclined.”

Estinian stared at him as though he had taken leave of his senses - and perhaps he had, being so open about those feelings he had hidden for so long - and it was enough for him to worm one hand free of the dragoon’s tight grip. His arm shot out, fingers curling into the silver hair at Estinian’s nape to drag the taller man into a desperate kiss. It was far from the best - his experience in this field was rather embarrassingly lacking - but Estinian didn’t seem to care as it only took a heartbeat or two before he was kissing back fiercely. Roughly and hungrily as those ruby eyes glowed more and he twisted his own free hand into the front of Aymeric’s shirt. Teeth caught his lip, sharper than he had expected but not minded as he moaned softly and the silver-haired man took advantage to plunder his mouth with a groan of his own. Eventually pulling back and leaving Aymeric’s head spinning as he fastened his hard gaze on blue irises.

“Truly? Even like this…. You would still desire me in the same way?”

For all of his sharpness and ire, there was a note of uncharacteristic apprehension in Estinian’s tone. The barest hint of the gravity that Aymeric’s answer held and the subtle undercurrent of fear at the rejection he still somewhat believed awaited him. Blue eyes softened as his fingers in long hair gentled and he brushed a thumb against his cheek in a tender caress. “I will always desire you, dear heart. And should you doubt that to be the truth, I would suggest that you simply take a further stock of your surroundings.” The last sentence was uttered with a teasing smile and a roll of his hips against Estinian’s knee that had his breath catching in a soft moan. “Think you….that I speak falsehood….then you need only discover for yourself.”

That was quite true, Estinian mused to himself as he allowed his own lips to curl into a smirk as he savoured that quiet moan. “Indeed… then perhaps it would benefit us both were I to take ample time and effort towards this ‘discovery’... In fact, I believe that there is much to be learned and explored…. Perhaps enough to occupy the rest of the hours until dawn…”

Aymeric would have suggested that such ‘explorations’ needn’t cease at dawn… had Estinian not returned his attention to that irritatingly sensitive spot beneath his ear that made his breath hitch and his body shudder. He had never had thought to question the dragoon’s experience in such matters, and some part of him flashed with jealousy at the thought that such knowledge hadn’t likely been gained without experience. A soft chuckle vibrated against his skin as if Estinian seemed to guess the train of his thoughts and he trailed lips up to whisper into that same ear he was busily tormenting. “Would it please you to know that I always thought of you, my lord?”

It did please him, and it also made the fact that in those - admittedly fewer - encounters he had always found his thoughts drifting to the silver-haired one rather than on his current bedmate seem less a source of guilt. Yanking his other hand free, he tugged hard on silver hair to wrench Estinian’s head around into another hard kiss with a hiss. “And if it does please me?”  
Something about the sudden roughness from Aymeric drew a little moan from Estinian as he returned the kiss and set to work on freeing the dark-haired man from the rest of his damnably insufferable armour. For all that it was beautiful and suited Aymeric perfectly… right now it was a hindrance and a barrier between himself and what he wanted. His friend - lover, wasn’t he going to be? - was working on his armour as well and the thrice-damned shite wouldn’t just begone quickly enough. “Halone...damn this armour….” He growled as he finally worked the last piece free from Aymeric and tossed it aside before diving in for another kiss amidst Aymeric’s soft laughter. And Fury had he missed that sound… Worming his fingers underneath tunic and robes, he shoved them aside with another curse before finally getting to what he wanted and running his fingertips almost reverently over tanned skin. It was nothing that he hadn’t seen before - they had trained together, after all - but this was different and he resolved to take his time and map every curve and scar on this body. Later, when the fire in his veins had been quenched and they were both satisfied and time could be given to more leisurely lovemaking.

Or… that had been the thoughts in his head before Aymeric’s fingers had brushed against those small black horns and his mind had short-circuited as jolts of sensation shot through him. Not since they had appeared had the dragoon taken the time to really study the blasted things and therefore nothing could have prepared him for the reaction when Aymeric traced a sodding fingertip from base to tip and he found himself having to bite back a mewling little cry. One that had obviously been noticed as blue eyes widened and then narrowed as the wretched whoreson did it again. With a smirk this time as he mirrored Estinian’s early attention to his own ears. Well, if that was how he wanted to play… With a challenging look at Aymeric, he swept the piles of papers from the desk and spun them to pin the dark-haired man down on it. Ignoring Aymeric’s protests at the mess as he ground hips down and attacked now-bared skin with a hungry growl.

“My lord…. Shut up.”

To his credit, Aymeric actually listened. But maybe that was because Estinian’s tongue was in his mouth again. Not that it mattered; all that mattered was that Aymeric was his and he needed and every whimper and gasp only made that need grow. He paused in his leaving of bruises down the side of Aymeric’s chest to bite the fingers of his gauntlets and yank them off so he could work his way out of the rest of his own armour. Aymeric’s shirt worked well to bind arms over his lover’s head and he greedily swallowed up the surprised yelp from the other man as he found himself at Estinian’s mercy.

“Estinian, what are you-”

The question died on his lips as the other man managed to yank open the laces to the front of his breeches and oh Fury where had he learned to do that?! Estinian’s name was a gasping yelp as he groped for purchase against the desk. One hand buried in tangled silver hair as the dragoon wrapped his mouth around Aymeric and swallowed hard with a moan. By the twelve, he was like to forget his own name, and he was relatively certain that right now Estinian’s name was the only word he could utter. If ‘word’ could be ascribed to the broken whimpering cries that he barely managed to deduce were coming from him. Every moan and whine seemed to spur Estinian on as he bobbed his head and sucked, swallowing and teasing his tongue against aching flesh as his lord writhed against the desk. This was what he wanted… or at least part of what he wanted; to have Aymeric absolutely wrecked, to crack that polished facade and keep hearing that need that was colouring the other man’s voice. Need for him. He gave another hard suck and swallow before pulling away to shuck off the rest of his clothing and yank Aymeric’s trousers off as he glanced around.

“Where?” Hazed blue eyes tried to focus as the dragoon pulled away to rummage - messily, of course - through the desk drawers with a frantic impatience. “Wh?” His response only earned him a scowl as that burning gaze fastened on him and he swallowed a whimper at the raw hunger in those eyes. “Tell me you have something that will work…” Work for…. Oh. For that… Still trying to catch his breath, Aymeric pushed himself up on one elbow with a nod towards the small armoire against the wall. “Top drawer.”

Taking only a moment to grab the indicated bottle, Estinian raised an eyebrow slightly before pouring a bit of the oil onto his fingers. “Dare I ask for what purpose this little trinket was purchased?” The slight teasing edge to his voice had Aymeric mentally cursing the way his cheeks flushed as he answered. “You know how dry my hands get in the winter.” The response he got was a snort that may have been amusement or disbelief before that mouth was back on his skin and those fingers were teasing and probing. Far more gently than he would have expected, and that small realization only made him love the silver-haired man more as Estinian carefully worked a finger into him and mouthed his way across tanned skin. His own fingers twisted into that hair as he pulled his new lover up to claim lips in a deep kiss and muffle his moan as another finger breached his body and he felt them slip deeper as the dragoon worked him open. “You don’t….have to be….so gentle. I won’t break, dear one….”

The endearment somehow meant even more to him than the permission - reassurance, even - that he needn't hold back. That even the seething mass of raw instinct and feral need that now coiled inside of him didn’t need to be hidden. And somehow that was just so Aymeric that he felt himself smirking against skin. “Ever the diplomat… very well then.” Pulling slicked fingers free, he fixed his glowing gaze on those blue eyes he would willingly drown in as he lined himself up and sank in with a steady thrust. And the world exploded.

Not literally, but Estinian would have been hard-pressed to say otherwise as the heat and the tightness nearly drove him out of his mind. But even beyond that there was the need. The burning, searing need to claim. To brand himself onto and into every ilm of this man so that Hydaelyn herself would know that Aymeric belonged to him. And that he, Estinian Wymrblood… belonged to Aymeric. He could feel the horns grow longer, feel the scales creep a little further across his skin, but those feelings were far away compared to Aymeric’s voice in his ear. Urging him on, begging for him not to stop, gasping endearments both worded and wordless amidst pleading moans of his name. So he ignored everything else and focused on that perfect feeling of completeness as he lost himself in this man he had adored for so many years. He didn’t even notice when the wings tore through the skin of his back, he was too focused on the way those nails raked down his shoulder blades and those teeth bit into his shoulder as he sent them both over the edge and spent himself in his lord with a desperate cry of Aymeric’s name.

Soft fingertips against skin brought Estinian slowly back to himself as he became gradually aware of several things. One, the desk was a good half a foot skewed from its previous position on the stone floor, and the stain from the toppled inkwell would serve as a permanent reminder of this night. Even if only for them. Two, the cool air against sweat-drenched skin was a mite chilly and they could both ill afford to catch cold. But most importantly...that he was pillowed atop Aymeric. Who was warm and comfortable and stroking his fingertips against the black skin with a look of awestruck wonder. That look was the only reason he didn’t recoil as he realized the thrice-damned appendages had made themselves known again. Watching Aymeric’s face with a wary expression as the other man studied the wings.

“They’re beautiful, Estinian… They feel like velvet.”

That was...perhaps the response he had least expected and yet it was somehow the most Aymeric response and he found himself snorting as he glanced sidelong at the wing Aymeric was petting. “Damnably irritating, is what they are. Thank the Fury they don’t usually just...pop out like that.” Turning his gaze to the mess they had made of the office, he snorted. “I do hope you don’t intend to extract an apology from me for the state of your office.” Aymeric snorted as he followed Estinian’s gaze to the scattered paperwork with a sigh. “I should…. But I think instead I will simply impose upon you to aid me in returning it to its proper order.”

“Alright. But in a minute.” Right now, he had no intention of moving very far, and it took all of his arms’ length to reach out and snag Aymeric’s discarded coat to drag it over the two of them as he replaced his head against the dark-haired man’s shoulder. Biting back a snort of amusement at how quickly his dragoon - or his dragon, if he wanted to make a pun of it - had decided that Aymeric was his new pillow, he simply shifted slightly and let his fingers go back to softly petting ebony wings. Dawn would perhaps bring new light to their situation, drawing back the shadows and forcing them to face difficult truths...but for now, he would just enjoy this moment.

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